Japan gives you a week and a rail pass. Spend them properly.
Which Kyoto day covers Fushimi Inari and Arashiyama without running. What the Fuji bus costs once the bullet-train return is in it. Whether a sumo show is worth a hundred dollars. Reviews of every tour you can book in Japan.
01One day, all of KyotoPERFECT KYOTO 1-Day Bus TourFushimi Inari, Kinkakuji and the Arashiyama bamboo on one coach, with the walking between them already worked out.
02The day out of TokyoMt Fuji and Hakone 1-Day Bus Tour Return by Bullet TrainFuji's Fifth Station and Lake Ashi, then the bullet train back before dinner. The most booked day in the country.
03Dinner down an alleyShinjuku Food Tour (13 Dishes at 4 Local Eateries)Thirteen dishes across four Shinjuku counters, with somebody along to do the ordering.
04Ringside, then hot potSumo Show Experience with Chicken Hot Pot and a PhotoA bout at close range, then the chanko stew the wrestlers actually live on.
Tokyo, Fuji, Kyoto, Nara, Osaka, Hiroshima. The run a first trip nearly always follows.
Tokyo
Kyoto
Nara
Osaka
HiroshimaThe best meals in Japan are booked, not stumbled into.
A counter seats six and fills a month ahead. Three ways to eat properly in this country, what it costs to join each one, and the city it suits.
Tokyo first, then Kyoto, then whatever the rail pass reaches.
Six cities that carry a Japanese itinerary, and the best day out in each. Every one of them is a train ride from the last.
Tokyo rewards an early market and a late alley.
Everything in Tokyo →
Start at the fish market before the good tuna goes, spend the middle of the day somewhere with a view, and eat standing up in Shinjuku. These three carry more travellers than anything else in the city.
Tsukiji, before the queues form
The inner market moved to Toyosu, and the outer lanes kept the good part: knife shops, tamagoyaki off the griddle, uni handed over the counter. Most stalls are shut by early afternoon, and by Sunday.
Ringside at a sumo show
Grand tournaments only reach Tokyo three times a year. The rest of the calendar, a retired wrestler puts on a bout a few feet from your table and then feeds you the chanko stew he trained on.
Fuji, and back before dinner
Kawaguchiko, the Fifth Station and a boat on Lake Ashi, then the Shinkansen home. The mountain hides behind cloud on plenty of days, so book one that keeps going either way.
Tsuyu runs June into July, and September comes in sideways.
The rainy season and the typhoon tail both land on otherwise good months. Neither of them cancels a trip. Japan simply moves indoors: a tea room, a kitchen counter, a hall of armour, a cellar under a brewery. All of it bookable, all of it under a roof.
Japan’s most booked days out.
Every tour in Japan →These are the days that go first, and what puts each one at the top of the pile.
1
Mt Fuji and Hakone 1-Day Bus Tour Return by Bullet Train
Review of a full-day Mt Fuji and Hakone tour from Tokyo, with 5th Station, buffet lunch, ropeway, Lake Ashi cruise, and bullet train return.
From · $163
Read our review →
2
1-Day Tokyo Bus Tour
from $129
3
PERFECT KYOTO 1-Day Bus Tour
from $129
4
teamLab Planets TOKYO Digital Art Museum Entry Ticket
from $25
5
Mt Fuji & Hakone Cruise, Drum Show Bullet Train 1 Day from Tokyo
from $149
6
Sumo Show Experience with Chicken Hot Pot and a Photo
from $103
7
Shinjuku Food Tour (13 Dishes at 4 Local Eateries)
from $86
8
Peaceful Hiroshima & Miyajima UNESCO 1 Day Bus Tour
from $129
Kyoto is a morning city. Book around the coaches.
Fushimi Inari is empty at seven and shoulder to shoulder by ten. The bamboo at Arashiyama is the same story an hour later. Gion runs the other way round: it only works once the lanterns are on.
Every Kyoto day out →
Tea, geiko, sumo and armour. Japan’s oldest habits, still bookable by the hour.
Kyoto keeps the tea houses and the geisha districts. Tokyo keeps the ring and the sword halls. None of it takes a whole day, and all of it needs a reservation.
Japan changes shift at six.
The salarymen come out of the offices, the shutters go up on eight-seat bars, and the alleys behind the stations turn into the best eating in the city. None of it is obvious from outside, which is what the guide is for.
What a day out in Japan actually costs.
Every tour on the site, sorted by what you pay for it. A good number of the best Japanese days come in under fifty dollars.
Temple walks, tea ceremonies, market mornings and the tickets that need no guide.
The full days: Fuji and Hakone by coach, a Kyoto bus tour, thirteen dishes across Shinjuku.
- 11-Day Tokyo Bus Tourfrom $129
- 2PERFECT KYOTO 1-Day Bus Tourfrom $129
- 3Mt Fuji & Hakone Cruise, Drum Show Bullet Train 1 Day from Tokyofrom $149
A licensed guide to yourself, a car and driver, and the bullet-train days that take in two cities.
Four Japanese bookings that will not wait for you.
Most of this country can be arranged from the hotel lobby the night before. These four run on ticket lotteries, market hours, timed slots and the weather, and none of those care when you land.
- 01Tokyo Studio Ghibli Museum and Ghibli Film Appreciation TourMuseum tickets are dated, released once a month and gone the same day. Nothing at all is sold at the gate.
- 02teamLab Planets TOKYO Digital Art Museum Entry TicketEntry runs on timed slots with a cap on each. Weekend slots go weeks ahead, and there is no door queue to join instead.
- 03Toyosu Market Morning Tuna Auction and Tsukiji Food Tour with Licensed GuideThe auction floor works before dawn and the market shuts on Sundays and scattered Wednesdays. There is no second sitting.
- 041-Day Snow Monkeys, Zenko-ji Temple & Sake in NaganoThe macaques use the hot spring when it is cold. From late spring they are up in the forest and the pool is often empty.
Three things that happen in Japan and nowhere else.
Temples and street food exist all over Asia. A stable of six-hundred-pound athletes, a district that still trains geiko, and a legal go-kart convoy through Shibuya do not.
The sumo ring
Grand tournaments run for fifteen days, six times a year, and only in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and Fukuoka. Everywhere else, and every other week, what you can book is a show: a retired rikishi fighting an exhibition bout a couple of metres from the front row, then serving the chanko stew that put the weight on him in the first place. You are allowed to try to push him over. You will not.
- 1Sumo Show Experience with Chicken Hot Pot and a Photo★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 6,678 reviews
- 2Sumo Show and Dining Experience★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 2,742 reviews
- 3the SUMO show★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,960 reviews
Gion and the geiko
Kyoto still has five geisha districts and roughly two hundred working geiko and maiko. They are not performers you can hire off the street; they move between teahouses at dusk, which is why the walking tours run at that hour and stop where they do. The etiquette is simple and worth keeping: no blocking the lane, no touching, and photographs only where the guide says.
- 1Kyoto Geisha Walking Tour: Gion District & Hidden Gems★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 3,273 reviews
- 2Gion Magical Night Walking Tour with Geisha Trivia★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 2,393 reviews
- 3Gion Geisha District Walking Tour – Stories of Geisha★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 2,187 reviews
Go-karts through Tokyo
The karts are road-legal in Japan, so the route is genuine public road: Shibuya crossing, Tokyo Tower, the Rainbow Bridge. You drive it yourself, in convoy, at the eye level of a taxi bumper. A valid international driving permit is required at the desk and there is no way around it, so bring the paper version issued in your own country.
- 1Flagship 2-Hours Official Street Go-Kart Tour – Tokyo Bay Shop★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 4,974 reviews
- 2Official Street Go-Kart in Shibuya★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 3,435 reviews
- 3Osaka Go Karting Tour with Funny Costume★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,658 reviews
Newly reviewed in Japan.
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